Samsung, Sony, Panasonic book a profit in Q3

(AP) – Samsung Electronics, Sony and Panasonic all booked a profit in their respective third-quarter earnings.

But Samsung, the world's largest manufacturer of computer memory chips, said business conditions are deteriorating due to anemic recoveries in advanced economies, even as it reported a 17 percent jump in third-quarter profit to a record high.

Samsung earned 4.46 trillion won ($3.97 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, up from net profit of 3.81 trillion won the year before, it said Friday. The result was Samsung's third straight record net profit.

Sales of mobile phone handsets rose 19 percent from a year earlier to 71.4 million units, helped by the launch of the Galaxy S and Wave smartphones.

Samsung said overall third-quarter sales rose 12 percent to 40.23 trillion won, also a record and the first time the company's revenue has surpassed the 40 trillion won mark. Sales the year before were 35.89 trillion won.

Flat-screen TV shipments rose 17 percent in the third quarter to 9.07 million units, but Samsung said that sales of premium LED and 3-D-capable TVs declined after soccer's World Cup "due to weakening consumer confidence amid the slow economic recovery in the United States and Europe."

Another weakness was the LCD business, where Samsung said that shipments increased slightly from the year before and were flat from the previous three months.

Meanwhile, Sony returned to the black in the latest quarter and raised its earnings forecast, thanks to brisk sales of its PlayStation 3 gaming consoles and personal computers

The company reported a profit of 31.1 billion yen ($375 million) for the July-September quarter. It was a big rebound from the 26.3 billion yen loss it posted a year earlier.

The solid results reflect the success of cost cuts and restructuring carried out under CEO Howard Stringer. Since taking over in 2005, the Welsh-born CEO has been trying to unite the company's sprawling businesses and improve efficiency.